Texas A&M could've easily spun a 27-19 loss to No. 1 Alabama into a positive, especially since it started a handful of underclassmen and a true freshman quarterback in the contest.

Head coach Kevin Sumlin, on the other hand, wasn't about to do that.

"There is no moral victory in this league," Sumlin said. "When you play that hard and you play that long, nobody is happy. The challenge for us is to get in here and go back to work the way that we have gone back to work every Monday to get better. We lost the game, but as a team, we have gotten better every week. There is a lot of things that we can learn from tonight that can help us the rest of the year."

Here are some of the other post game quotes.

Sumlin on A&M's defensive performance:

"We let one out early, which changes what happens. In a game like that, as I talked about early in the week, we can't give things away. You have to give Alabama credit because they took advantage of that. That's who they are. It was a field position game early, we turned the ball over, and we gave up a big play early in the game that really gave them some breathing room. The run defense was pretty consistent all night except for the big play we gave up."

"He's a young guy. There's a lot of things that he'd like to do differently. They changed some looks on him. The last two weeks it's been a lot of different stuff coming at him and like I said, he hasn't always done everything right, but he's given us a chance in all of these games to be successful, either with his legs with the scramble, and he's made some good throws and just like with any quarterback, particularly young quarterbacks....He continues to be open and be open about himself, which I think helps his growth. Certainly, he wants to play better and I think he's shown that every week."

Sumlin on Kyle Field's atmosphere:

"The energy level in that stadium tonight was awesome. The last couple of weeks, Kyle Field has been as electric as it has ever been since I have been here. Part of the deal is that we have to give our fans something to be electric about. Even when we got down a couple of scores, our fans have been fantastic, and we really appreciate that."

Texas A&M 12th Man Cullen Gillaspia on what he saw from his team:

"Heart. Guys played with everything they had. We've been a second half team all year. Being down in years past, guys in the locker room would be a little more scared but we came out and we knew what we had to do. We had to get a job done. We knew this game was going to come down to turnovers. They hadn't turned the ball over yet this year. We created two and I think they got three. It's a funny shaped ball; it bounces a weird way sometimes."

Gillaspia on blocking the punt and energizing the crowd:

"I'm still waiting on my touchdown. Coach Banks drew up a great scheme against their punt team. I just do what I'm supposed to do and follow Coach Banks's orders. He's one of the best special teams coaches in the country. I wish it wouldn't have gone out of bounds and I wish we could've gotten a touchdown there but like I said, the ball is shaped funny and it bounces weird ways."

"He's young, but eager to compete and have fun. Running out on the field I just patted him on his back and said, "Hey, let's go have some fun tonight." He just smiled. His attitude was great tonight. He made some very competitive plays. Especially the one where he was flushed out of the pocket, rolled out right, and threw the ball to Kirk there in the end zone. Dynamic plays like that are good and we need those to compete in games that are close.

"I'm definitely excited to be blocking for a quarterback like that who wants to compete, get after it and do whatever it takes to win. He definitely got after it tonight. I'm looking forward to seeing him going forward and continuing to get after it and make plays like that. He's definitely a competitor and will continue to grow."

Junior receiver Christian Kirk on his touchdown catch:

"With Kellen and being able to be mobile, you have to stay alive for him. He's great at making people miss and that's our job as receivers to get open. If you were to look at it, and I'm sure it will come up on film, I was running around back there in circles trying to figure out which way he was going and finding a way to get open. All you need is a little bit of separation.

"I was able to come back to him after he ended up rolling right and he gave me an opportunity to catch it. With Kellen being young, that's on us as receivers to go out there and make those tough catches for him. All that was, was a great throw by him and me having to come up with the catch."

Alabama head coach Nick Saban on the Aggie defense:

"They played man fronts all the time and made it hard for us to run. They played a lot of double seams. They do a lot of stunting off the edges and I think we were well prepared for it. They tried to take Jalen away by bringing an extra guy off the blocks. They didn't give him a chance to be a runner. We had some opportunities to make some plays in the passing game but we didn't do it. That's how you have to play. You have to throw the ball and we didn't do that as effectively as we needed to. But we did what we needed to do to win."